Hello from the mountains of the Dominican Republic

*********************** The following message from Scott Orford in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic, is one of many special greetings that SooToday.com will be publishing over the holidays from expatriate Saultites.

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*********************** My brother Russ and I are spending Christmas this year in Jarabacoa, a small mountain city in the Dominican Republic.

We both work for New Horizon's Youth Ministries (http://nhym.org) at Escuela Caribe, a boarding school for at-risk American youth.

This season was full new experiences for the both of us.

I have been away from SSM now for many years, only popping in to visit my family and friends a couple times a year.

Russ has worked here since March, but had to return to the Soo for a few month to recover from a severe motorcyle accident.

He's finally back in the Dominican Republic again with me.

One interesting Dominican experience this season is the loud fireworks at all times of the night, and parades of people singing "Alegro Vengo" (a popular Spanish Christmas toon) at four in the morning as part of their all-night festivities!

My mom and dad, Doug and Dawn, recently sent us pictures of our old house covered in snow.

It made me thing of all those Canadian people wrapped up in their winter clothes.

Here, the temperature stays between 69 degrees at night and 80 degrees in the day at this time of year, so we were certainly were dreaming of a white Christmas this year - the one like we used to have with my family.

- Scott Offord

************************* Other 2004 holiday messages from SooToday.com readers

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